Gay teen’s mom sues high school, claims teacher threatened to kill her son

An Oregon school district is being sued by a distressed mother, who claims a teacher threatened to kill her son; a gay special education student.

Filed in U.S. District Court, the lawsuit names five employees including teacher Brett Trosclair, who allegedly subjected her son to numerous acts of “harassment and discrimination.”

Shawna Dicintio filed Both a federal First and Fourteenth Amendment lawsuit were filed. The mother claims her son’s constitutional rights were violated, and the suit will test the federal Title IX law, alleging sex discrimination.

According to The Oregonian, her son “told his friend that he thought another student was cute,” according to the lawsuit.
In the middle of a March assembly, Trosclair apparently turned around and told the boys to “shut up.”

Then he allegedly threatened to kill them and throw them down the stairs.

The lawsuit states:

“Defendants had an unofficial policy, custom or practice of condoning harassment and discrimination based on sexual orientation. Defendents’ conduct toward Plaintiff was extreme and outrageous and constitutes an extraordinary transgression of the bounds of socially tolerable conduct.”

When Dicintio’s son — identified as “J.D.” in the lawsuit — and the student he was talking with complained, the teacher was placed on administrative leave.

According to the lawsuit, this wasn’t the first time staffers bullied her son.

The Oregonian reports that “in May 2014, she alleges, the school’s dean of students refused to help the student while he was being verbally and physically assaulted in the lunchroom.”

In September 2014, Dicintio alleges, another teacher told her son “to stop being a diva and a priss.” After Dicintio complained, the superintendent’s executive council reviewed the district’s policies on bullying and harassment. The district also offered multiple two-hour trainings so staff could learn about LGBTQ and gender issues to better meet the needs of gay and transgenderstudents.

Still, Dicintio’s lawsuit says district officials did not do enough and instead caused her son “emotional distress, embarrassment, humiliation, anxiety, stress and fear.”

Students are rallying around the teacher, saying he was joking.

They’ve created a Facebook support page for him and on Twitter are using the hashtag #TeamTrosclair to offer support.

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